A HANDFUL OF STRANGERS, A KING, A BAD OMEN, A SITH LORD AND A GYPSY
Wow! What a weekend THIS has been!
Friday night after work, Rebecca and I went to Hollywood 20 to catch the new horror/suspense/thriller The Strangers starring Liv Tyler. The film was a wonderful exploration into old school psychological terror with the ’strangers’ playing some hardcore cat-and-mouse games with Liv Tyler’s character and her estranged lover. And the games were just a precursor to the inevitably grim ending. The film was effective enough to make me actually lock my bedroom door in my apartment and keep my Celtic war sword by my bedside as I turned in that night!
The Strangers \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/
Before turning in, I tried to find out more about the films’ apparently falsified true events inspiration being I found nothing. I did, however, discover that I had missed the release of one of my favorite band’s, KING’s X, new album which hit record stores back on May 20th. Frustrated by my own negligence, I rushed to Best Buy first thing Saturday to purchase XV, their aptly-titled fifteenth album. I have bought every record on its street date since the mid-90s! The disc didn’t exactly floor me, but it IS KING’s X and is still better than a vast majority of modern music!
KING’s X XV \m/ \m/ \m/
From there, I headed towards Easley to hit 123 East Coast Ink to have Redneck do my long-awaited Darth Vader tattoo on my leg. While en route, Becca called me to let me know she had found a Schecter Omen-4 left-handed bass on e-Bay for $350 with free shipping. Having just received a nice paycheck the day before, I was left with a difficult yet obvious decision to go ahead and bite the bullet. Hey, ramen noodles will do for a couple of weeks, right?! So I gave her my card info so she could make the purchase only for the card to be declined. For some reason, online purchases do NOT like my card! So, she proceeded to make the purchase on her PayPal account and I agreed to reimburse her right after I got my new body art.
I got to 123 East Coast Ink and Redneck proceeded to turn my leg into a beautiful canvas any Star Wars geek would be immensely proud of! Here’s the pic he took of it right after he finished:
You can also check it out and rate it on the Wall of Ink!
On the way back to my neck of the woods, I stopped by an ATM to get Becca the cash I owed her for the bass only to find that it left me with much less in my account than I had accounted for. As I gave her the cash, I informed her of the issue and she, in turn, checked out my online bank statement. As it turned out, the declined card purchase posted - TWICE!!! Considering I had just written a check for my rent that morning, I am in a considerable jam. In all likelihood, the bank will drop the declined charges and all will be well and good, but, in the meantime, I am sweating the good possibility of a bounced check!
So, I headed home a bit concerned but ready to relax a bit nonetheless. I threw on a load of laundry and rested until my musical comrade Mikey got off work and we headed out to The Real Gypsy to catch a former bandmate’s new band, THE DIRTY EIGHTIES. Steve and Co. were joined by HEAD LANGUAGE and PREACHER’s GUN for a good live music outing followed by a tasty trip to the Huddle House!